The present invention is a bottle combiner of a unique and simple design. In the bottling industry it is necessary to move large amounts of bottles from one point to another. During this movement it is necessary at some point for the bottles to be moving in single file and at other points for the bottles to collect on a table or other suitable area so they can bunch up in that area without slowing down the production line. Unfortunately, moving the bottles from single file to a bunch and back to single file can result in bottle jams in the bottle combiners. Consequently, the major stop gaps in bottle production lines are the bottle combiners. The down time that results from such jams is exceedingly expensive and sometimes such jams are fairly difficult to correct and can result in breakage of the bottles and loss of product.
In order to move the bottles from a large bunch into a single file it necessary to funnel the bottles. This funneling is done by simply narrowing the path along which the bottles move until only one bottle at a time may move down along the path. In order to facilitate this movement, vertical roller bars are normally positioned along the sides of the funnel mechanism so that the bottles, which are normally in the upright position, may be more easily funneled. Because the movement of the bottles is essentially the movement of many cylindrical workpieces from a wide space into a narrower space jamming can occur. This is caused by the geometry of the bottles and the fact of friction along the sides of the bottle combiner.
Even with the addition of roller bars along the sidewall of the combiner, in order to produce rolling friction, jamming can still occur because the vertical roller bars have gaps between them in which the curved surfaces of the bottles may fit and thus, in combination with the geometry of the rest of the bottle flow through the combiner, still jam. The problem is that it is impossible to move the vertically placed roller bars close enough to each other in order to eliminate the gap between the roller bars. Thus a bottle is able to slide into the gaps or be jammed into the gaps by the pressure of the other bottles behind it causing a jam.
The device of my invention by means of a unique and simple design eliminates this problem of gaps between the roller bars and greatly reduces jamming in a bottle combiner thus increasing the efficiency at which the combiner works and the speed at which a production line may be run. I know of no prior art design or machine which discloses the unique and simple features of my invention.